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Clostridium difficile Infection

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Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2015

Part of the book series: Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2015 ((AUICEM,volume 2015))

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Abstract

Clostridium difficile is a Gram-positive, anaerobic, spore-producing anaerobe [1] responsible for approximately 50–70% of gastrointestinal infections in hospitalized patients [2, 3]. An episode of C. difficile infection (CDI) is defined as a clinical picture compatible with CDI (i. e., diarrhea, ileus and toxic megacolon) with microbiological evidence of C. difficile (ideally free C. difficile toxins) in stool, without reasonable evidence of another cause of diarrhea, or identification of pseudomembranous colitis during endoscopy, after colectomy or on autopsy [4, 5]. Life-threatening cases are associated with severe colitis and shock, and can require intensive care unit (ICU) admission and colectomy [4, 6].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Microbiology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals and Leeds Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    M. H. Wilcox

  2. 1st Department of Internal Medicine, German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    M. J. G. T. Vehreschild

  3. Division of Clinical Microbiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden

    C. E. Nord

Authors
  1. M. H. Wilcox
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  2. M. J. G. T. Vehreschild
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  3. C. E. Nord
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. H. Wilcox .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université libre de Bruxelles, Dept. of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Brussels, Belgium

    Jean-Louis Vincent Prof.

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Wilcox, M.H., Vehreschild, M.J.G.T., Nord, C.E. (2015). Clostridium difficile Infection. In: Vincent, JL. (eds) Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2015. Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2015, vol 2015. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13761-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13761-2_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-13760-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-13761-2

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